Burlington woman pleads guilty to seriously injuring teen in 2020 car accident

A Burlington woman pleaded guilty Tuesday as she was preparing to stand trial for charges related to a June 2020 traffic accident that left a Burlington teenager critically injured.

Shelby Nacole Whittaker, 25, of Burlington was accused of drunk driving and hitting 14-year-old Spencer Weir while he was riding his bicycle along Summer Street on June 9, 2020.

Whittaker was charged with first-offense operating while intoxicated, a serious misdemeanor, and serious injury by vehicle, a forcible class D felony. She pleaded guilty to the latter charge. The state dismissed the operating while intoxicated charge, but the penalty for that is essentially merged with the serious injury charge, according to Des Moines County attorney Lisa Schaefer.

Whittaker also has agreed to pay court costs and victim restitution.

Whittaker's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Feb. 21. She faces up to five years in prison and fines of between $750 and $7,500.

Weir suffered spinal bruising, multiple traumatic brain injuries and fractures to his head, spine, arm, leg and foot. Weir also suffered a brachial plexus injury that tore the nerve roots controlling his left arm away from his spinal cord.

According to court documents, an Iowa State Patrol trooper who responded to the scene "observed several clues consistent with signs of impairment from Whittaker's person, to wit: red watery eyes, emotionally excited, and I detected a slight odor of an intoxicating beverage emanating from Whittaker's breath."

Investigators say Whittaker admitted to drinking one Long Island iced tea at 8:30 p.m. The accident occurred at 8:54 p.m.

At 10:24 p.m., a preliminary breath test of Whittaker showed she had a blood alcohol content of .087%. An analysis of Whittaker's blood samples by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations Lab in Ankeny determined she had a BAC of 0.124 at the time of the collision.

Whittaker was not injured during the accident.

Due to the time it took for the blood sample obtained from Whittaker to be analyzed and the results submitted, she was not charged until Oct. 31, 2020.

Whittaker initially pleaded not guilty and has been arrested twice on pretrial violation warrants relating to substance use.

She was admitted to Rosecrance Jackson Centers in Sioux City for inpatient substance abuse treatment April 1 and left against medical advice April 5. Whittaker returned to inpatient treatment in July, this time at the YWCA in Fort Dodge.

Whittaker's trial was continued several times, once due to COVID-19 and others because she was in treatment.

The most recent continuance came in December after it was discovered the stated failed to provide Whittaker's attorney, Curt Dial, with a criminalistics lab report, as well as 25 videos relating to the accident. The trial had been scheduled to start Dec. 14, and neither the report nor the videos were disclosed until Dec. 13.

Dial again requested a motion for continuance on Jan. 5 due to scheduling conflicts, but that was denied.

Weir's family has also filed a civil suit against Whittaker, seeking compensatory damages, stating in court filings that Weir "has incurred doctor, hospital and other medical-related expenses in the past and will continue to incur more of the same in the future; he has endured severe and continuing pain, suffering, disfigurement and loss of function of the mind and body in the past and will continue to endure more of the same in the future; and S.W., a minor, has sustained a loss of earning capacity in the future."

The petition further states Carrie Reusch, Weir's mother, has suffered damages as a result of the collision, including shouldering the burden of medical expenses, lost time from work while caring for her son and "lost part of the normal love, companionship and consortium with her son in the past and will continue to suffer a partial loss of the same in the future."

Adam Bates, a West Des Moines attorney representing Whittaker, in an answer to the petition filed Aug. 17, 2020, said many of the allegations in Reusch's petition "are denied for lack of information."

The jury trial for the civil suit is set for April 11.

The Hawk Eye reached out to Dial on Wednesday, but he declined to comment.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Shelby Whittaker pleads guilty to injuring teen in 2020 car accident